Airloom Energy Starts Building Prototype Turbine in Albany County

JULY 18, 2025 |

Photo – Image of Airloom wind turbines compared to traditional turbines – Courtesy Airloom Energy

Work continues in Albany County on building a new kind of wind turbine technology operation that should be up and running later this year.

During the Board of Carbon County Commissioners meeting held late last year on December 3rd, 2024, representatives from Airloom Energy presented a plan to build a prototype of their new technology.

Airloom is a wind energy startup company based in Laramie.

Instead of deploying traditional vertical wind turbines using a motor and attached blades like aircraft propellers, the Wyoming startup will deploy a horizontal track roughly the size of a football field. The design features numerous small blades, each about 30 feet tall, positioned to capture wind and travel along the track to generate electricity.

During the meeting with county commissioners here, the company’s Chief Executive Officer Neal Rickner said his company was negotiating with private landowners in Carbon and Albany Counties to build a one-megawatt test track. However, by March, the company had settled on a site in Albany County, located 45 minutes north of its Laramie headquarters.

Speaking to Bigfoot99, Airloom Energy CEO Neal Rickner said the company broke ground on its prototype track in late June. Rickner credited Wyoming’s business-friendly environment for helping keep the project on track to begin generating electricity before winter.

Rickner said the test track in Albany County was designed solely to experiment with the effectiveness of the technology. Unexpectedly, a data center has expressed interest in using the electricity generated by Airloom’s prototype wind turbines. While the deal is not yet finalized, Rickner said he is optimistic that he has secured a buyer.

Rickner said when finished, the test track could potentially produce one megawatt of electricity, which is enough to power up to 1,000 homes. However, because Airloom Energy is a relatively small company with limited finances, the CEO said the prototype will be limited to several hundreds of kilowatts.

Several years ago, Airloom Energy built a smaller, 5-kilowatt-scale prototype of its wind turbine technology in Pine Bluffs, Wyoming. CEO Neal Rickner said the Albany County prototype will be used to test the efficiency and cost of scaling the technology up to commercial levels.

Additionally, the Albany County test track will help identify any flaws in the technology. Rickner said the Airloom system draws from proven rollercoaster designs, and the company has hired several engineers with experience in that field. However, like any new technology, there are bound to be unforeseen challenges.

Anyone who has visited an amusement park knows rollercoasters can be quite loud. Rickner said the Albany County test track will help determine the real-world noise level of Airloom Energy’s technology, along with strategies for noise mitigation.

Airloom Energy has applied for two Small Business Innovation Research grants from the federal government. CEO Rickner said he is confident that his company will receive the grants when the decision is announced in early August. In the meantime, the Laramie-based wind energy company has secured funding from investors from around the country.

Rickner said Airloom’s track technology offers several advantages over traditional vertical wind turbines, including reduced visual impact thanks to its lower tower height. Additionally, the smaller blades can be hauled using lighter trucks, reducing disruption to highway traffic and minimizing wear on county roads.

Rickner said the International Energy Agency predicts that rising demand from artificial intelligence and data centers will cause electricity consumption to double within the next five years.

Traditional electricity production methods, such as natural gas or nuclear power plants, may take years to decades to bring online. Rickner said Airloom Energy is a quicker and more flexible way to meet those growing energy demands.

CEO Neal Rickner thanked Airloom Energy founders Robert and Blossom Lumley. Rickner said their dedication and personal sacrifice were instrumental in bringing the horizontal-tracked wind turbine technology to life.